Word: wonkish
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that they should have a fistfight. But you had to admire Al Gore and Bill Bradley, surely the most nonconfrontational of politicians, for at least trying to put up their dukes in debates that took place Friday in New Hampshire and Sunday on "Meet the Press." The subjects were wonkish - health care, education, campaign finance reform - but the subtext was clear: How willing were they to show a nasty side...
...audience at last night's town hall seemed hand-picked for Bradley: liberal, wonkish, well-educated. Bradley's progressive stance on gay rights got the loudest applause of the evening...
...being the anti-Clinton is to say "fuck" a lot in front of reporters. The idea, apparently, is to jar us all by how little he cares about his image, in stark contrast to the relentlessly image-conscious Clinton. Bush also wants us to know that, unlike the legendarily wonkish president, he isn't a nerd. Has the number of abortions fallen during his governorship? "I don't know, probably down," he told Tucker Carlson of Talk magazine over the summer. Let a lesser man memorize statistics...
...England's most famous--and raunchiest--radio personalities. (On the air she once asked Fabio, the romance-novel cover model, if he has "big private parts.") The mayor of Somerville, Michael Capuano, showed strength in a recent poll, but the best hope for an upset may be a wonkish venture capitalist named Chris Gabrieli, who's spending his own millions to run a campaign focused on, of all things, policy ideas. Can his fortune beat their fame...
...furious protests from gun-control lobbyists and criminologists, who call the book's research spurious, its statistics suspect and its conclusion--that "allowing law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns will save lives"--dangerous. Part of what's threatening about the book is its author: John Lott, a wonkish University of Chicago economist who has never been an N.R.A. member and prior to writing the book did not own a gun. (He has since bought a .38-cal. pistol.) "If I had really strong views about guns," he says, "I wouldn't have waited until I was 40 to write...